Where Does Compulsion Come From?
Published November 12, 2021 · 7:00 · 102,209 views
About This Video
The BMW motorcycle's left blinker won't turn off. Van removes the instrument cluster again, suspects a single drop of rainwater shorting the circuit board, and reinstalls it. Meanwhile he builds a shelf for two bottles of cough syrup. Meanwhile he writes a lecture about why you should never shoot video vertically. Three spare vehicles in the driveway and he's still fixing the blinker.
The question underneath all of it: why? The answer, arrived at during insomnia: the compulsion comes from his spirit. The artist's job is to preserve the human spirit. The blinker fix fails. The video gets done. That's the real report card.
Transcript
see the left blinker okay here's the blinker switch turning it off left blinker still blinking it could be the years of meditation that allows this spirited man to wonder as he's fixing this instrument cluster and blinker again why why does he keep fixing things why not just replace them okay my theory is that something's wet in here this bike is 14 years old even the bmw dealership has trouble fixing it they don't have the repair manuals the parts cost a fortune the time and money he's put into this bike makes no sense water gets into the instrument cluster when it rains it almost never rains here maybe it's a single drop of water makes its way into the motherboard or whatever it's called circuit board one drop gets in there and shorts the blinker circuit or the corrosion parks the circuit maybe but that's all that's wrong with this bike the blinker won't turn off left blinker stays on right blinker don't work that's it okay moment of truth come on please please please please please all right all right it's off it's not blinking all right well it's blinking on here but now it's not blinking on here it's blinking on here is it not all right i'll figure something out all right i don't know what i did but here what's this left left works left it turns off off victory not exactly out of the woods yet because i got to put this back in the in the assembly supposed to be writing the video right now they're turning the electricity off thursday gotta finish the video by thursday shouldn't be getting yourself into this repair right now why why keep putting in the time the money why build a shelf during the middle of all this why the shelf for two bottles of cough syrup supposed to be writing a video begging the world to stop shooting vertically stop shooting video like this it's just lazy you're cropping the frame you're not adding anything you're just robbing us of what's going on on the right and what's going on on the left cinema evolved to bring us the widescreen because our eyes are side by side we see the world through a horizontal rectangle only one reason to shoot vertically only one and that's laziness too lazy to tilt the phone 90 degrees why why does he care so about the horizontal frame about not shooting vertically why fix the blinkers yourself why a shelf for two bottles of cough syrup those berries that make lemons taste sweet half pack of alka-seltzer plus cold nighttime and energy mints why insomnia thinking about why so he got up and wrote down why he figured out why and wrote it down laying in bed thinking about the blinker fix and the video that must be made and they're shutting down the power the electricity and the blinker and the video if he's honest with himself the blinker and the video hold the same importance in his mind the same urgency even though they are three spare vehicles including a brand new motorcycle so what is this thing that compels the shelf making blinker fixing and horizontal shooting lecturing it's obvious what this thing is this compulsion the thing that compels the shelf making blinker fixing and horizontal shooting is his spirit okay to build a shelf for two bottles of cough syrup okay to lecture about shooting horizontally it's okay to remove the instrument cluster again and take it apart again and install it again it's all okay because the compulsion comes from his spirit and damn it the artist's job is to preserve the human spirit so let them turn the electricity off tonight turn off the power it's broken still all that time wasted so i failed but the video is done